UNITED STATES 
          DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
               SOIL CONSERVATION SERVICE 
 
                                       Bethany, Missouri, 
                                       October 2, 1936. 
 
 
 
 
Dr. Aldo Leopold, 
Department of Biology, 
University of Wisconsin, 
Madison, Wisconsin. 
 
Dear Dr. Leopold: 
 
            It will very easily be possible for the wildlife 
technicians in the Soil Conservation Service of Missouri to 
made some cover maps and census of the various special areas 
for wildlife species. In that connection, it occurred to me 
that you might be interested in something of the sort on the 
Phil Smith farm in Callaway County, Missouri which you mapped 
when you were making the -aime survey of the central states. 
 
            I was over the farm about a month ago with the 
forester at the lfcCreedie Project, Fulton, Missouri. The C.C.C. 
camp at Fulton is building wire checks, an earth dam or two, 
and setting up a rotation on the farm as they are with various 
other cooperators in the county. Some areas are being fenced 
aý-ainst livestock and will be of increasiný- value for wildlife.

At that time the farm looked very bare and dry. A small pond 
that had dried up until it was barely a mud hole was the con- 
grerrating place for one or two coveys of quail that were 
traveling almost one quarter mile to obtain a very poor drink 
from it with no cover near the pond bank nor vdthin one hundred 
yards. MKr. Smith is buildint- another pond on his own initiative 
on the place and a large county pond is being built by drouth 
relief labor just outside the boundary line of the farm. As 
you know,water seemed to be a very vital need during this year 
and for the last two years. From observation it seems that al- 
most as many, birds have died as a result of a lack of water as 
fro- other causes. 
 
            If you would be interested in a cover map and census 
 of this farm to keep with your findings in former years, I would 
 be very Clad to get it for you, and also for any other farms 
 that you made maps for when you were making your ý-ame census 
 in Yissouri. 
 
                               Yours very tr y, 
 
 cnd:abt                       C. N. Davi , 
                         Acting .4ildlife Technician, 
                              for Missouri.